{"id":237852,"date":"2017-05-16T16:59:22","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T19:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=237852\/"},"modified":"2017-05-16T16:59:22","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T19:59:22","slug":"speed-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/speed-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Speed test"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Over a span of just a few months, Brazil has dropped seven positions in the ranking of nations with the largest supercomputer arsenals<\/a>. In November 2015, the country came in at 10th<\/sup> place, with six systems among the 500 highest performers in the world.\u00a0 In June 2016, it fell to 17th<\/sup> place, with four computers.\u00a0 Brazil\u2019s best showing was in 2004 when it had nine representatives on the list. The two Brazilian supercomputers that have fallen out of the ranking belong to Petrobras and to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Both continue to produce complex and swift calculations at around trillions of operations per second, and are indispensable for simulating oil field drilling and producing accurate climate studies and weather forecasts. But they are no longer on the list of the 500 fastest because they were surpassed by others of more recent manufacture.\u00a0 Inaugurated in 2016, the world\u2019s fastest computer, China\u2019s Sunway TaihuLight, is capable of performing 93 quadrillion calculations per second \u2013 performance that is three times faster than the second-place computer, also from China, the Tinhae-2. \u00a0That Asian country has 168 systems in the TOP500, a ranking published since 1993 by the University of Tennessee and Germany\u2019s University of Mannheim.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian supercomputers cited in the ranking were inaugurated last year.\u00a0 Three of them are part of the Santos Dumont cluster, in operation at the National Scientific Computing Laboratory (LNCC), in the state of Rio de Janeiro.\u00a0 The other, christened Yemoja, was installed at the Center for Integrated Manufacturing and Technology, a unit of the National Industrial Training Service (SENAI-CIMATEC), in the city of Salvador, Bahia State. \u201cThe drop in positions illustrates the fact that Brazil is updating its supercomputer arsenal at a slower rate than that of other countries,\u201d says Pedro Leite da Silva Dias, a professor at the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (IAG-USP), who headed the LNCC from 2007 to 2015. The laboratory is affiliated with to the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications.\u00a0 \u201cOn the other hand, for a long time, we only had one computer on that dynamic and quickly changing list.\u00a0 In order to stay on top, or at least maintain our position in the rankings, we need to invest a lot in modernizing our high-performance computing arsenal,\u201d Dias continues. Brazil\u2019s decline in the ranking is sounding alarm bells though.\u00a0 \u201cHaving dominance in computer processing technologies gives us a competitive advantage because supercomputers help develop cutting-edge research studies,\u201d say Augusto Gadelha, current director of the LNCC. \u201cMore powerful machines encourage researchers to attempt to solve more complex problems.\u201d During the second half of the 1990s, Brazil led the list in terms of number of supercomputers among the nations that now make up the BRICS [Brazil, India, China, Russia and South Africa] bloc. At the moment, Brazil is only ahead of South Africa.\u00a0 \u201cIn recent years, we have watched the advance of China, which has surpassed the United States and now has supremacy in terms of arsenal.\u00a0 The rivalry between the two countries has created a sort of supercomputing Cold War,\u201d notes Dias.\u00a0 There is some a battle to see who will be the first to have a computer capable of achieving exaflops, in other words, getting to nearly one quintillion mathematical operations per second.<\/p>\n

Besides being powerful research tools, supercomputers also provide support to areas many nations consider strategic, such as defense, nuclear energy and health.\u00a0 In 2014, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, both in the United States, invested $325 million in the purchase of IBM supercomputers that researchers are now using to study climate change, new materials and renewable energy.\u00a0 The infrastructure is shared with government agencies such as the Department of Energy (DOE).\u00a0 In the case of China, percentage of its supercomputers is used by government institutions.\u00a0 \u201cThey help on various fronts, such as in planning construction of hydroelectric plants,\u201d Dias explains.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Leader in latin america<\/strong>
\nBrazil is the only country in Latin America to appear on the TOP500 ranking. It possesses only 0.8% of the world\u2019s 500 supercomputers, a percentage less than the country\u2019s contribution to world science, which is just over 2% of the articles published in indexed journals. High performance computing is relatively new in Brazil: the first acquisition dates back to the late 1980s.\u00a0 At the time, the Brazilian Innovation Agency (FINEP) began a program to promote the purchase of supercomputers at universities and research institutions.\u00a0 The first to benefit was the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). In 1994, the Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies (CPTEC) at INPE purchased its first supercomputer, a 3.2 gigaflop NEC Sx-3. \u201cWeather forecasting requires complex equations to be solved in just a few hours.\u00a0 And this can only be done with extremely fast processing times,\u201d explains Luiz Fl\u00e1vio Rodrigues, head of the supercomputing and support unit of CPTEC-INPE.<\/p>\n

To handle these demands, supercomputers have to be replaced every four or five years.\u00a0 Since 1994, INPE has had five systems.\u00a0 The most recent is a Cray XT-6 called Tup\u00e3 (the Guaran\u00ed word for thunder), purchased in 2010 for R$50 million \u2013 R$15 million from FAPESP and R$35 million from the federal government.\u00a0 The supercomputer has 256 teraflops of capacity. \u201cNow, with the crisis, there are no prospects for replacing it in the short term. Because the computer is already coming to the end of its useful life, we updated some of its components, which should keep it operating for two more years,\u201d Rodrigues says.<\/p>\n

The Tup\u00e3 splits its time working on two fronts: half of the time it is used for CPTEC operations, which include weather forecasting, and the other half is devoted to scientific research.\u00a0 One of Tup\u00e3\u2019s applications is processing the Brazilian Earth System Model (BESM) one of the pillars of FAPESP\u2019s Research Program on Global Climate Change (PFPMCG) launched in 2008.\u00a0 Under the coordination of INPE, the BESM was developed on the basis of South America\u2019s climate parameters, incorporating regional cloud formation processes, in addition to knowledge developed in Brazil regarding the influence of the Amazon Rainforest on global climate. In 2012, the Brazilian model starting contributing to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate (IPCC).<\/p>\n

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Paulo Faria <\/span><\/a> The Santos Dumont cluster is installed at LNCC headquarters in Petr\u00f3polis, Rio de Janeiro StatePaulo Faria <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The oil and gas industry also makes intensive use of supercomputers to calculate such things as tank capacity in an effort to reduce the risk of spills. Petrobras\u2019 two main computers \u2013 the Grifo04 and Grifo06 \u2013 are used to generate high resolution maps of the subsoil obtained through the emission of sound waves.\u00a0 The company also uses the processing capacity of partner institutions like the Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate Studies and Engineering Research (COPPE-UFRJ). Many Petrobras projects are headed by researchers at the Center for Advanced High-Performance Computing (NACAD) at COPPE and at the Petrobras Research Center (Cenpes).\u00a0 In July 2016, COPPE inaugurated the Lobo Carneiro, a U.S. made SGI supercomputer with 226 teraflop capacity \u2013 it can perform 226 trillion mathematical operations per second.\u00a0 Just like the Santos Dumont computer at the LNCC, the device will also serve the High-Performance Computing for Energy Project (HPC4E) that brings together Brazilian and European Union research institutions and companies engaged in improving energy sector efficiency.\u00a0 \u201cIn addition to clients in the oil and gas industry, like Petrobras, many of our users operate in the field of engineering, especially in investigations of different forms of energy like solar and wind,\u201d explains Guilherme Horta Travassos, a professor in the Systems and Computing Program at COPPE-UFRJ and president of the NACAD management committee.\u00a0 The Lobo Carneiro cost $4.2 million.\u00a0 Funds came from sources such as the UFRJ and the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP).<\/p>\n

Reinforcements from bahia<\/strong>
\nAnother new feature of Brazil\u2019s oil and gas industry recently began operations in Salvador, Bahia. It is the Yemoja (Yemanj\u00e1, goddess of the sea, in the Yoruba language), manufactured by SGI. As one of the fastest computers installed in Latin America, it was purchased in 2015 as a result of a partnership between SENAI of Bahia and BG Brasil (Shell).\u00a0 There are projects underway aimed at innovations in oil and gas, but SENAI-CIMATEC is not disclosing information about them.\u00a0 With 405 teraflops of processing capacity, the Yemoja stood 95th<\/sup> in the TOP500 when it began operations, and is now at position 323 in the ranking. \u201cA second supercomputer for studies in biomedicine, robotics, image processing and alternative energy will also be installed,\u201d says engineer Jo\u00e3o Marcelo Silva Souza, leader of the high-performance processing field at SENAI-CIMATEC.<\/p>\n

Another recent investment in high performance computing has benefited the Center for Research in Mathematical Sciences Applied to Industry (CeMEAI), one of the FAPESP-funded Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs), which inaugurated the Euler computer cluster on the USP S\u00e3o Carlos Campus in July 2015. Purchased at a price of R$4.5 million, the system is composed of 104 networked computers, with enough capacity to perform 47 trillion operations per second. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the fastest computers ever installed at a S\u00e3o Paulo university,\u201d says Jos\u00e9 Alberto Cuminato, a professor at USP\u2019s Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Computation (CMC) and CeMEAI director.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Named in honor of Swiss mathematician and physicist Leonhard Paul Euler (1707-1783), the system is used for fluid flow simulations, with applications in petroleum and aerospace engineering, in complex network engineering, such as the propagation of epidemics, and in nanostructure engineering. Because it is multi-user equipment funded by FAPESP, other institutions in the state of S\u00e3o Paulo are authorized to use it as well.\u00a0 Some of the main users of the Euler are researchers at the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA) in S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 dos Campos, the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos (UFSCar), the National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) and the University of Texas.<\/p>\n

One group of ICMC-USP researchers uses the cluster in partnership with Petrobras to simulate oil extraction, refining and combustion.\u00a0 In March 2017, the Euler is scheduled to be updated for the first time, at a cost of R$2 million.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not enough to have the money needed to purchase a supercomputer.\u00a0 Operation of this type of equipment entails expenditures on maintenance and power.\u00a0 An institution needs to provide for all of this in its budget,\u201d says Cuminato, reminding us that the Euler power bill is paid by USP.<\/p>\n

To expand its processing capacity, in 2012, USP signed an agreement with Rice University that has a computer donated by IBM: the Blue Gene\/Q, with a capacity of 189 teraflops. \u201cUSP contracts the services annually and uses approximately 30% of the supercomputer capacity on studies in fields such as engineering, physics, astronomy and atmospheric sciences,\u201d says Jo\u00e3o Eduardo Ferreira, superintendent of information technology at USP.\u00a0 Nearly 41% of USP\u2019s share in the Blue Gene system is used by researchers from the Physics Institute; 18% is used by the Polytechnic School (Poli); and 17% is used by the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences (IAG). In all, USP spends close to US$500,000 per year to obtain access to the Blue Gene\/Q. Two computing clusters at USP, named \u00c1guia (45 teraflops) and Lince (70 teraflops), complement the work of the U.S. machine.\u00a0 Ferreira says USP\u2019s partnership with Rice University took into consideration the sustainability factor of the supercomputer.\u00a0 The Blue Gene\/Q is one of the world\u2019s most economical systems and ranks highest on the Top Green 500, another list that identifies the most energy efficient systems.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>High costs<\/strong>
\nBesides its high price tag and relatively short useful life, a supercomputer is expensive to maintain.\u00a0 Travassos at UFRJ says that the costs involved with power and maintenance were important factors in the decision to purchase the Lobo Carneiro supercomputer.\u00a0 \u201cEven though it is very efficient, the electricity bill could be as high as R$60,000 a month if the system is fully used,\u201d he says.\u00a0 Concern about the economics of computers is seen all over the world.\u00a0 \u201cSupercomputers carry hefty maintenance and power costs,\u201d says Pedro Dias of USP. The Santos Dumont, at the LNCC, did not begin full operations until June 2016.\u00a0 Between January and May, it operated only four hours per day and was not available to the scientific community, all due to a lack of funds. \u201cThe 2016 LNCC budget was cut in 2015. By June 2016, the issue was resolved, and now the Santos Dumont is used in 42 projects involving topics such as nanotechnology, renewable energy, civil engineering, the development of vaccines to fight the dengue and Zika viruses, software production and astronomy,\u201d says Gadelha. The system uses 0.8 megawatt (MW) and the monthly electricity bill runs R$350,000 to R$400,000. The Santos Dumont and the Lobo Carneiro are the only Brazilian systems that are on this year\u2019s Top Green 500.<\/p>\n

Purchased for approximately R$45 million from the French company Atos\/Bull, the Santos Dumont consists of three distinct computing systems with the capacity to reach 1.1 petaflops. This means the computer is capable of performing one quadrillion mathematical operations per second \u2013 a speed that is approximately one million times faster than an ordinary notebook computer. It is the centerpiece of the Brazilian National System for High-Performance Computing (SINAPAD), a network that consists of nine National High-Performance Processing Centers (CENAPADS), operated by universities and research institutes.\u00a0 COPPE\u2019s NACAD is one of these interconnected centers that can be utilized remotely by researchers all over the country.\u00a0 Established in 1994, the S\u00e3o Paulo CENAPAD is located at the University of Campinas (Unicamp) and has already been used by researchers from 18 Brazilian states: 36% from S\u00e3o Paulo, 25% from Rio Grande do Sul and 13% from Minas Gerais. \u201cMost users are working in mathematics, physics, chemistry, geosciences and biology,\u201d says Jos\u00e9 Augusto Chinellato, a professor at the Gleb Wataghin Physics Institute of Unicamp and coordinator of the SP-CENAPAD.\u00a0 A total of 172 projects are being carried out by 502 researchers from institutions all over Brazil.\u00a0 \u201cThe SINAPAD has become a high-performance computing network for universities and research institutes,\u201d Chinellato explains.<\/p>\n

Pedro Dias notes that Brazil has made it a priority to disperse its resources for high-performance computing.\u00a0 \u201cIt opted for purchasing a large number of small machines,\u201d he explains.\u00a0 The United States did just the opposite: there are large computational centers scattered throughout the country, meeting the demands of research and industry.\u00a0 Dias says that the lack of more robust systems explains why many Brazilian researchers seek out computers installed abroad, through scientific collaborations, or by contracting processing services from companies like Google and Amazon. According to the LNCC\u2019s Gadelha, the model adopted in Brazil is a legacy dating back to the late 1980s, a time when Brazil did not have the technology capable of ensuring that researchers in distant areas of the country would be able to remotely use a supercomputer installed in the Southeast. \u201cConsequently, institutions from various states demanded funds to acquire their own high performance computers,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brazil loses momentum in world supercomputer ranking ","protected":false},"author":421,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[219,264],"coauthors":[740],"class_list":["post-237852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policies-st-en","tag-computation","tag-information-technology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/421"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237852"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=237852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}